(Part 3) Reddit mentions: The best mystery & suspense action books

175 of the books I have first time read this year were from Kindle Unlimited, so here are the ones that pop out as I scroll through my giant history (only listing first in series to keep this list as short as possible).

I think the best series I have read this year is Fatemarked.

• Fatemarked by David Estes is amazing, I enjoyed it more than a few series that have gotten an insane amount of attention. Estes published all 5 books in this series over 1 year (which means he probably spent years before writing the whole thing) and despite spreading out to follow a lot of characters, it remains a tight story. I did suffer some fatigue and didn't start book 5 after book 4, but in my defense, I read books 1-4 over July 31st thru August 3rd. I do plan to go back, and the author provides a concise summary of the entire previous series before each book making it easy to return.
  
  Other great reads:
  
  
• One Word Kill (Impossible Times) was good, and an entirely different voice from Mark Lawrence. One of the best time travel series.
  
  
• The Dragon Hunter and the Mage was a surprise.
  
  
• Mortis Operandi by Edward Buchanan was fun.
  
  
• Mage Errant: Into the Labyrinth / Jewel of the Endless Erg by John Bierce is of the better wizard school series I have encountered.
  
  
• The Zero Blessing is one I actually read last year, but it is another great wizard school series. I have only read books 1 through 3, there are more books after.
  
  
• Apprentice by Nicholas Hale was good. It goes in some really unexpected directions. As much a story about ensuring a legacy as it is about the title character's exploration of magic.
  
  
• Called (Southern Watch) by Robert J Crane is a Monster of the Week type, but instead of chasing dangers around (like Supernatural), it is a "king of the hill" style (like Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The story goes to some really dark places, that isn't a dare to people, just as a warning.
  
  
• Heroes Road was good. These two books are collectively about 1600 pages, but it felt like 4 or 5 books of content. To quote a reviewer (TikiTumbwo): "Epic Reality."

Okay, this is going to be more information than you asked for, but I love these books, so I apologise in advance. Going in chronological order is your best bet because they're all really solid stories.

• X-Wing: Rogue Squadron
  
  
• X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble
  
  
• X-Wing: The Krytos Trap
  
  
• X-Wing: The Bacta War
  
  These are written by Michael Stackpole and follow Rogue Squadron in the aftermath of Return of The Jedi. They're all part of a single interconnected story, but also work well as stand alone books.
  
  After that there's the Wraith Squadron books, written by Aaron Allston. These follow a whole other set of characters. I think it's universally agreed these are the funniest books in all of the Expanded Universe. That's not say they're comedies, they just have some really amusing characters.
  
  
• X-Wing: Wraith Squadron
  
  
• X-Wing: Iron Fist
  
  
• X-Wing: Solo Command
  
  
  There are a couple more X-Wing books after this, but if you're really into it, I'd advise checking out Heir To The Empire and the rest of the Thrawn trilogy first, if only from a chronological standpoint.
  
  Also, if you're an ebook fan, it looks like all of the X-Wing books have been collected here.
  

Perhaps black holes are the support columns which interface our universe with the quantum virtual hypervisors which contain this simulated reality matrix. Have you read the Day Eight series by Ray Mazza? If not, you will definitely love it! Spoiler: He brilliantly describes a super advanced quantum AI which eventually grows to simulate universes within universes. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007FIIR0U/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_b007fiir0u

I'm a huge fan of yours. Thank you for everything you do! You have been a source of inspiration for me for many years.

Nothing this week but I'm itching for Peter Hamilton's new book that comes out on the 21st, "The Abyss Beyond Dreams: A Novel of the Commonwealth"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0345547195/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?redirect=true&ref_=pe_174190_124773310_nrn_image

I love the depth and richness of the series of books set in the Commwealth. His space operas are always a very satisfying read.

For the next couple of days, my second novel is free on the Amazon Kindle store via Kindle Select. Synopsis below. For anyone who's a reader of action-thriller novels and would like to grab it, it's on the house with my compliments.

Pump on the Amazon Kindle Store

Pump:

In the not-too-distant future, after a catastrophic and world-wide economic collapse, the United States is a broken shell of its former self.
But on the island of Manhattan, a comfortable standard of living still exists that only the world’s richest can afford. Sheltered from the chaos and anarchy of the outside world, New York City has become a privately-run sanctuary operated by a mysterious and powerful company named Maddox Corporation.

As one of the world’s last remaining and fully functioning cities, Manhattan requires ongoing human resources for its daily operations, and to provide the luxurious services that wealthy clients still demand. To recruit workers for the island, Maddox runs a lottery program, which offers its winners the chance to escape what is now a brutal and desperate existence in the real world, and instead begin a privileged life in the safety and comfort of a city that most will only ever dream about again.

But, of course, there is a catch. There is always a catch.



EDIT: Based on a number of people interested in reading my novel but not having a Kindle, I've made it available as a PDF to grab from here. I won't leave the file up indefinitely, so grab it when you can. Thanks for the interest!
Pump (PDF)

I'm midway though The Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton (in audiobook form). It's pretty great so far. He's a masterful worldbuilder and of of my favorite Sci Fi writers.

I've also been enjoying the Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia. Its quite the guilty pleasure of a modern fantasy.

did you read MR. ROBOT: Red Wheelbarrow book by Sam Esmail the creator of the television series Mr. Robot.

I highly recommended Jeff Aiken Series [Zero Day, Trojan Horse and Rogue Code] by Mark Russinovich this guy is well known among the Security Research Community, co-author of the Microsoft Press Windows Internals books, and co-author of the Sysinternals Administrator’s Reference. He also authors and publishes the Sysinternals tools, which include dozens of popular Windows administration and diagnostic utilities. He is a featured speaker at major industry conferences, including Microsoft TechEd, RSA Conference, BlackHat and BUILD.

Cyberpunk genre: William Gibson Probably the most important author of the genre, his first novel Neuromancer was published in 1984 and won the Hugo, the Nebula and the Philip K. Dick awards for that year. He is credited with coining the term "cyberspace".

• The 'Sprawl' Trilogy
  
  1- Neuromancer
  2- Count Zero
  3- Mona Lisa Overdrive
  
  The next highest acclaimed cyberpunk author after William Gibson is Neal Stephenson, he's also written a lot of non-cyberpunk fiction as well.
  
  1- Snow Crash
  2- The Diamond Age
  3- Cryptonomicon
  4- REAMDE

A very important character to the original Star Wars: The Old Republic storyline. You can read his origin story in the novel Deceived. He's pretty prominent in the original endgame of SWTOR (Levels 39-50, if memory serves).

Note that most of those reviews on that Amazon page are... weird? It seems like the product, for some reason, shares the same reviews as the book Revan, which was controversially-received. Odd. Anyways, Deceived is a great read, and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves the Old Republic era.

While I agree that most of the EU books are poorly written, I would make a few exceptions. These are ones I've read and can personally vouch for:

• Darth Bane series by Drew Karpyshyn
  
• Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
  
• Deceived by Paul S. Kemp
  
  Deceived is optional, but Dark Lord is where you really see Anakin embrace and become Vader. Darth Bane is a cool series to see how the Sith turned from being many to just Master and apprentice.
  
  I'm currently reading Darth Plagueis but haven't finished, so I can't comment yet. But it's also supposed to be one of the greats, and also essential to understanding the movies from what I've read.
  
  Shatterpoint, Traitor, and Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover also seem to get rave reviews here on Reddit. I've gotten about halfway through RotS, and what I can say is that it explains things much better than the film did.

I am a writer, my work is self-published (and reviewed pretty well) and would love a better cover. A buddy did this one and... eh. Anyway you can find it here. It's a thriller. With dragons. Sort of.

https://www.amazon.com/Ziggurat-Marduk-Fletcher-Helle-ebook/dp/B00MY9VK3Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486512644&sr=8-1&keywords=ziggurat+of+marduk

[David Wong - futuristic violence and fancy suits] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1250097754/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501075520&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=futuristic+violence+and+fancy+suits&dpPl=1&dpID=51K-KsvBa1L&ref=plSrch)

upon finishing it, the ending could have had one twist that would have made it a lot better. but, it was a great book. fun to read.

This article is pure gold

And the columnist's novels look like great reads as well. Looks like I will be checking it out

I always stick to 3 books at a time.

Main:

Jurassic Park by Michael Critchon. I love this book. I have about 9% left and will finish it during bedtime tonight. Crazy thing is everyone tells me The Lost World is the superior novel. Will start on it after I'm done with this.

Secondary:

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway. Gustavo is just getting his fish to bite. It's okay. I don't have a ton of time to read it, but once it's my main book, I'm sure I'll put a lot more time into it.

Just Starting:

Slobberknocker: My Life in Wrestling by Jim Ross**.** I'm a huge wrestling fan, and this is the autobiography of Jim Ross, a man that has been in the business for many decades. I am only a few pages in, but I know I will kill this book in a few days once this is my main book.

Next Books to Start:

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

Without Remorse by Tom Clancy

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (Suggested by a Reddit User's post)

Note: I DO NOT have an Amazon Associates account so I do not get any income if you click on the link or not. I just wanted to make things easier for anyone who may wish to purchase or get more info without copying and pasting into google and whatnot. :-)

Check out The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison. The protagonist is a strong female, and it's good postapocolyptic fiction. There ARE situations in the book like you described, with helpless females/brutal males. But hey, we'll take what we can get! It's free on Kindle Unlimited right now.

I, Jedi was a pretty good book. Granted, I read it in 10th grade, so I have probably inflated its worth.

It is a Star Wars novel, set about 15 years after A New Hope, so you will probably have to be familiar with what is going on in the SW universe to enjoy it. Martin Stackpole has written quite a few other novels as well.

From Amazon:
>Corran Horn, hero of Rogue Squadron and former Corellian Security Force officer, has a problem: his wife, Mirax, has disappeared while on a secret mission. In his struggle to rescue his wife, Horn joins Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy as a charter recruit, befriends Mara Jade, tangles with a 4,000-year-old Sith lord, and goes undercover to infiltrate a notorious band of pirates. But what will he do when he finds himself faced with a dilemma--surrender to the dark side of the force or risk losing Mirax forever?

Sleeping Giants was amazing. Its about these women scientists (They just happen to be women) that are racing around the world to assemble an alien artifact. Each chapter kind of ends on a mini cliffhanger and I could not put it down. The movie rights have already sold and it will be amazing. http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Giants-Themis-Sylvain-Neuvel/dp/1101886692

I’ve been recommending this one to anyone who will listen https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250097754/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_cK7xCbDHYD8ZA

It’s hilarious and has a lot of predictions about the future that seem legit. And the main character has a cat named Stench Machine. It’s amazing and I love it.

https://www.amazon.com/Project-Nemesis-Kaiju-Thriller-Saga-ebook/dp/B00A7FQ5O8

If you have any interest in Kaiju books, this is a fantastic series. I love the audiobooks.

https://www.amazon.com/Island-731-Thriller-Jeremy-Robinson/dp/0312552475

This has some crossover characters eventually.

You can try Cuckoo's Egg: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Espionage/dp/1416507787

And if you like it, here's the movie about the book: http://youtu.be/EcKxaq1FTac

It's one of my favorite books of all time.

If you haven't read Mitnick's other work, he has the Art of Intrusion which is pretty nice.

Fatal System Error is also a nice read: http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-System-Error-Bringing-Internet/dp/B004NSVENM

If you're into fiction, read this: http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Day-Jeff-Aiken-Novel/dp/1250007305/

... not sure if you're joking or not, but

The Force Unleashed

The Force Unleashed II

Both great books that add some depth to the already good stories in-game. They are both in my top 5 of Star Wars novels (although I'm a little behind on some of the newer ones after Plagueis).

$2.99 eBook! Then I'll have to get a pizza and have a party :p

Thanks for the contest!

Here's a book for you, kiddo.

For the normal humans reading this, here is a funny video reading the book the epitomizes humans like this guy.

Archives for the links in comments:

• By Muskaos (amazon.com): http://archive.is/arU2U
  
  ----
  I am Mnemosyne 2.1, THE KEKISTANI PEOPLE MUST BE FREE! ^^^^/r/botsrights ^^^^Contribute ^^^^message ^^^^me ^^^^suggestions ^^^^at ^^^^any ^^^^time ^^^^Opt ^^^^out ^^^^of ^^^^tracking ^^^^by ^^^^messaging ^^^^me ^^^^"Opt ^^^^Out" ^^^^at ^^^^any ^^^^time

I see two books that match your description. One was published in '99, the other in '88.

The one published in '99 - 8.4, by Peter Hernon

>The stories are the stuff of legend, and they are all true. In 1811 and 1812, three earthquakes measuring 8 on the Richter scale ruptured an area spanning twenty-four states and a third of the land mass of the United States. Lakes formed in Tennessee, church bells rang in Boston, and the mighty Mississippi ran backward. But today it is all a distant memory. Until the underground force reawakens. Kentucky farmers say animals are acting strange: cows butt each other with unheard-of aggression and a few hundred rats race across a road in broad daylight. In the Ozark Mountains, leaking subterranean gases flash bursts of red and green across the midnight sky. Suddenly the earth beneath a sleepy Tennessee town "liquefies" in a fountain of mud and foul-smelling water. A man and a woman, both seismologists, find themselves in a race against the clock to convince the world that their daring mission is the only way to stop the last monstrous earthquake to come. History is about to repeat itself. It's Mother Nature calling.

The '88 one -[ American Earthquakes, by Constance Urdang]
(http://www.amazon.com/American-Earthquakes-Constance-Urdang/dp/0918273420)

>A third novel by a writer known chiefly for her poetry: a cunning pastiche of fact and family history that, though plotless, still manages to create the world of a handful of characters with a great deal of spontaneity. Throughout its brief 139 pages, the story returns again and again to passages detailing the causes and history of earthquakes on the North American continent, especially the quake that rocked southeastern Missouri in 1811. None of the characters here were affected by that disaster, though they all live in nearby St. Louis, and experience the smaller tremor of 1969. Among them are three aging sisters, Helen, Ethel, and Tess Houser, who have returned to the apartment where they grew up to deal with the adverse effects of old age--Ethel's senility, Helen's fading memories of a more eventful period in life, and Tess's inability to act like an adult. Their niece, Binnie, works in a hospital, and observes the thin hopes, weaknesses, and eccentricities of staff doctors and their wives. Little actually happens, except that Ethel is finally institutionalized and granddaughter Susie runs away to New York. Urdang, instead, suggests that embedded in these warm if humdrum lives are fault lines--and that tremors have occurred in the past causing psychological changes as significant as the topgraphical ones following the 19th-century New Madrid quake. Hermetic yet evocative--for readers with the patience to fill in lines between the scant dots the author provides. (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1988)

Corran Horn Still the best Starwars book I've ever read.

Plenty of games have side-books.

Uncharted.


The Last of Us

Watch Dogs

Assassin's creed (these are pretty bad, they're just retellings of the games)

Mass Effect

Halo


Like, I could go on. This isn't a new phenomenon or a way to rip you off. It's a way to tell stories that wouldn't fit in the game or would move too slowly, but they still want to tell and give you a part of that world. There's a novella about Faridah Malik - how could they put that in HR without letting you play her, which is clearly against the style, since the protagonist is Adam?

I think you'd love One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence

​

Not gonna say anymore at the risk of spoilers but it would be well worth checking out imo.

​

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Word-Kill-Impossible-Times-Book-ebook/dp/B07C24V3SD/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=one+word+kill%23&qid=1555492400&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Really cool book about the genetic experiments and biowarfare 60 years later, Island 731 by Jeremy Robinson.

Pretty creepy, kinda reminded me of Lost.

You might get some inspiration from this recent sci-fi book, Sleeping Giants:

https://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Giants-Themis-Sylvain-Neuvel/dp/1101886692

Here you go! :)

I thought he meant the book "8.4", which was actually an interesting thriller about the New Madrid seismic zone.
https://www.amazon.com/8-4-Peter-Hernon/dp/0399144005

I quite liked Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits: A Novel though it might not be for everyone. Definitely has that Ready Player One atmosphere to it.

Here is my review!

edit-I linked to it, is that ok? I can't do a screenshot right now because I don't have a computer and I can't do screenshots at work.

I actually just read an interesting book about that concept.

> Maybe we'll have a "cheetah" mode like back in SimCity 2000 where we can make one of our minutes equal five hundred of their years, to speed things along.

I read a pop-sci-fi book where they have this, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FIIR0U?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage, it ends poorly :D

That's Trigger Warning written under William W. Johnstone's name. I've seen a couple youtube reviews that cover it in it's entirety and it's so baaaaad.

I personally like Jenny Nicholson's review.

Sounds like "People's Republic" to me.

Yeah I just finished it!
http://www.amazon.com/Abyss-Beyond-Dreams-Commonwealth-Chronicle/dp/0345547195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421070723&sr=8-1&keywords=abyss+beyond+dreams

Agreed. Did you see that a new commonwealth novel is coming out soon?

What's really odd to me is that I can't imagine that the typical Trump supporter thinks that a lush, urban, minimally auto-friendly city would be their paradise. I'm imagining more of a cinematic wild-west type of homesteading, gun toting, rural locale with copious police presence and a lot of emphasis on masculinity would be more their speed. I mean, that's how Kurt Schlicter seems to see the kind of conservative utopia at least.

I strongly suggest you guys read the book. It goes even deeper than the video game.

For anyone wondering what these books are actually about, here are their Amazon pages. I've read neither, so I can't speak for them myself.

Great North Road

Fallen Dragon

Same price on amazon.ca

I really need someone to make a bot who price checks and reposts amazon links from different countries.

A suppressed .22 can have almost no report. Like seriously, all you hear is the mechanical action. That's gotta be a plus for an assassin if they get in close and aim well.

John Clark used one this way in the stellar Jack Ryan prequel, Without Remorse. (Back when Clancy's name on the cover meant he actually wrote it.)

If you haven't already taken care of your Secret Santa, well here you go:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786040505/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_mhB.Bb0Y23N9H

That picture is the cover art of the 4th book in the X-Wing Star Wars book series from the 1990s. If your at all interested in Star Wars they are great books and that one in particular is amazing. It is called The Bacta War and you can get still buy it on Amazon here Bacta War

This one?

Released in 2012?

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Republic-Deceived-Legends/dp/0345511395

Ahem.

Tell that to this guy: https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Republic-Kurt-Schlichter-ebook/dp/B01M0H7WQZ

Clearly, it's a tough esthetic to expand into a futuristic scenario. And yet, there's definitely some value here, in terms of interest. In terms of your readers and finding a market for stories set in this kind of a scenario, I think there's tremendous potential.

It seems like the key to making this work is going to be the tone of your story. You're trying to sell what is sort of an outlandish idea, so you might want to present your main character and/or the other elements of your story in an outlandish manner.

I think this could work as a lighthearted SF story, not humorous like HHGG, necessarily, but light enough so your characters can keep a running banter and crack jokes once in awhile. I think it could also work with an overly dramatic tone, or a quirky, magic realism sort of tone. Or some kind of outrageous tone I haven't thought of, that echoes how Generation Xers received information on all those mysterious and fantastic new devices.

Finding just the right mix of humor and seriousness can take some consideration. You want the story to be upbeat, because that's exciting, but not so upbeat that real dangers don't exist.

In terms of tone but not tech, have a look at David Wong's opening in Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. Use the Amazon "Look Inside" preview. Wong is about to throw you, the reader into a serious life-or-death situation, but before he does he introduces you to his main character. This is character first fiction. Within 2 paragraphs we know exactly what sort of person she is, we know how she approaches problems (very important) and we know something really terrible is on the way and that we have to keep reading to make sure she's going to be okay. But in addition to that, Wong has made it clear there's a lighthearted tone to all of this.

I'm not saying this is the right tone for your story, but I think it's one possibility.



---

In terms of tech, the only way cassettepunk works is if a few critical tech discoveries are never made, the most important being computers. It's possible computers still exist, but not electronic ones. Maybe mechanical computers.

On the serious side of things, what things frightened people the most when Gen X was growing up? The Cold War was in full swing in our world; the Berlin Wall didn't come down until '89.

You might want to work back in time and determine what the event was that split your world off from our own.

From there:

> "Conservatives are big pussies when their views are challenged in the media they consume (games, NFL, etc). They don't care if it's something they agree with."

The fuck we are, our opinions are challenged by literally every institution of note around us.

We get pissed when fuckheads like this snarky NeoGAF ass hole brings their snarky crap into sports because we are using sports as a way to find a moment of peace.

You know, after reading that sparkling gem of a comment, and reading the rest of them, I don't want dialog with people that disconnected from reality. I'm tired of dealing with people like that.

I want a divorce. (See this book: https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Republic-Kurt-Schlichter-ebook/dp/B01M0H7WQZ)

There are tons of them, though most are written by first-time authors. I read this one a few years ago, but not the sequels. In fact, there's a whole genre around it, Cli-Fi.

The thing is, though, that most of those types of fiction preach to the choir. People get sick of getting preached at when they don't belong to that particular choir. See Avatar, Fern Gully, etc. as examples.

Try Mark Russinovich. Zero Day, and Trojan Horse are supposed to be similar. Also, Daniel Suarez has another book out called Kill Decision.

It is probably not SF enough for you but Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong presents a near-future that is believable.

How the hell is this site STILL not blacklisted from here? This isn't an article, it's an advertisement.

>The Democrats of all stripes seem intent on creating the hellish nightmare I describe in my action-packed yet highly amusing novels about the United States’ split into red and blue countries, People's Republic, Indian Countryand Wildfire. These quality tomes are hated by liberals and the sad Loser Boat crew from the failed Weekly Standard as “Appalling,” so you need no further validation.